Work Permit Approved... well round one has been approved

The canton of Neuchatel approved Luke's work permit, now it is off to the Swiss government for approval. Should be another week or so and then everything will be ready for us to move...

Or so we thought...

I realized this week that no one has applied for our Visa. This whole time I had been thinking that we were waiting for approval on our Visa (not our work permit). Then one day it clicked and I realized that the work permit and the visa are NOT the same thing. I asked Luke if anyone had applied for our Visa and after a few urgent emails we realized no one had applied for the Visa. Ugh!

Apparently a Visa can take 8-10 weeks. So after a few hours of scouring every website on how to rush a visa application we found that if you have a work permit, the visa process only takes 1 week. But some sites said you have to apply in person which means we would have to travel to Los Angeles. I decided to call the LA Consulate office to find out what we need to do. After calling the office 10+ times and leaving messages, I came to the conclusion that Swiss people do not work. NO ONE was in the office, and not only that but the hours are only 8am - 4pm and they take a 2hour lunch! After I didn't get a call back from Ruth (the lady responsible for Visa questions) I decided to leave a message on the main line. Here is the recording I heard:

"If you have questions regarding your Visa, do not leave a message. We will not call you back."

Wow, friendly bunch of people.